


K-lab Daycare

by orphan_account



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Kid Mako Mori, M/M, Mako loves her science uncles, Newton Geiszler is a Dork, Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 14:40:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17706182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Hermann hid his smile behind his book as he watched Newton push Mako around their lab on his spinny chair, holding his breath when they only narrowly missed crashing into a table. How had he, Dr Hermann Gottlieb, have fallen so hard for this kaiju groupie?





	K-lab Daycare

The first time Mako had visited K-lab, she stood silently, half-hidden behind Stacker, peeking up at the two men. Newt had taken to her instantly, and made no hesitation in showing her all the kaiju remains that were strewn around the lab, even though Stacker had adamantly suggested against it before he left. She seemed to enjoy it. Hermann, however, took a bit longer to get used to her. He was never good with kids. Or people in general, for that matter. They were too unpredictable. Whenever she was around his nerves would be on high alert to make sure she didn’t touch his work or get up to too much trouble with Dr Geiszler. But after a while, he became more accustomed to her presence, came to enjoy it even. He’d learned that nobody seemed to be teaching math around here as they were too busy learning ‘more important’ skills, which he found to be most offensive, and set out to change that by taking Mako under his wing as a student. She would listen so attentively to his lectures on anything and everything, and seemed to pick it up almost instantly. The kid was certainly going places. 

What he wasn’t accustomed to was the way his lab partner would stare at him as he wrote out the equations for her on the blackboard. He wasn’t accustomed to the way time seemed to stop when he smiled. He wasn’t accustomed to the way their eyes caught each others and his heart would beat so much faster. He didn’t know how to deal with these things. There was no equation to help him here.

***

The usual humdrum of the lab was disturbed by Newton trying, and failing to make Jaeger sound effects. Mako was sitting precariously on his shoulders, holding onto him with all the strength in her little fists as he ran back and forth across the room. The small girl’s golden laughter lit up the lab, it was contagious. A smile tugged at Hermann’s lips as he quietly observed the two.

How Newton had so much energy, he would never know. Hermann was getting tired just watching him. Another poorly executed Jaeger noise echoed across the lab and he was almost certain at this point that the man had no volume control. He massaged his temple, trying to fend off the headache he felt creeping up on him, it was going to take more than some ibuprofen to get him through today. 

He anxiously watched as the biologist attempted to spin around in a circle, only just catching his balance in time to avoid knocking over a whole table of research. Mako shrieked in joy and, what Hermann assumed was fear, as he began to speed up. This man was going to be the death of him. He caught Newton’s eye and the biologist gave him a toothy grin, Hermann quickly dropped his gaze back to the book he was ‘reading’ to hide the smile that had spread across his face. 

“Nyeeooww, incoming attack on uncle Herm!” Newton yelled, much to Mako’s delight. He ran over to the scientist, leaning in so that the girl could reach him. Mako reached out her arm to poke him, making little ‘pew, pew’ noises as she did so. Hermann tried his best to play along, but was still vaguely suspended in the surprise of being called ‘uncle’. He corrected people (other than Newton, of course) when they called him Herm or Hermann or Mr instead of Dr, but he wasn’t quite sure what to do in this scenario. Uncle… It was nice. He could do that, wanted to do that. Be an uncle to Mako. He’d only known her for a few months, but Stacker had been getting the two scientists to babysit her more and more often, and they’d slipped into the role of ‘uncles’ quite easily. Newt finally had someone other than Hermann to rant about Kaiju to, even if the kid didn’t understand most of what he was saying she always listened intently. A warmth spread through him, it felt vaguely nostalgic, like home. He tapped the girl’s button nose, doing his best to copy the ‘pew’ sound she had made. Newton beamed up at him with genuine happiness in his eyes, maybe this was home. 

He lifted the girl down off of his shoulders and placed her gently back on the ground. Mako ran off, making more little Jaeger noises and giggling as she went. His eyes followed her around the room, ignoring Newton’s stare for as long as he could. When he finally met his eyes the biologist seemed to blush and opened his mouth as if to say something, before thinking better of it and quickly shutting it again. But Hermann understood. All of them here together, bathed in the orange glow of sunlight and joy, he wanted for nothing more in the world. Maybe his lab partner was a manic little bastard but he really did love him.

“Newt, if you want to say something, I don’t believe there’s a better time than the present to do so.” 

Newton let out the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding and gave a nervous laugh. 

“Yeah? Well uhh.. okay.” Another nervous laugh. He scratched at the back of his neck, casting his gaze down to the floor. Hermann smiled fondly at him, his face contorted in thought as he tried to find the right words. Eventually, he cleared his throat and said, “Dr Gottlieb.”

“Yes, Dr Geiszler?” He couldn’t help smiling.

“I-“ The door to the lab opened, both of their heads whipped around to see who dared interrupt this moment they were having. It was Stacker. The scientists quickly backed away from each other, not realising until now how close they’d gotten.

“Hey, Mako!” Stacker ignored their awkwardness, and instead knelt down to hug the girl, “Did you behave yourself?”

“Yeah, she was great! As good as gold!” Newt assured, his voice weirdly quicker than usual. Mako nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

“That’s my girl.” Stacker smiled fondly at her, it was nice to see how quickly his usually stoic exterior would melt when she was around. 

“Can I come back tomorrow?” Mako looked up at him, pleading with her puppy dog eyes. Stacker looked over to the two men for some kind of confirmation that it was okay. 

“Yeah, that’d be great.” Newton smiled.

“Okay, then, same time tomorrow.” Stacker took Mako’s hand, “Thanks again for looking after her, it’s been a busy couple of weeks.” 

“Hey, no problem, dude. It’s our pleasure, honestly.” 

“Yes, Miss Mori is quite delightful.” Hermann agreed. 

Stacker gave them both a quick smile and nod of the head before turning and leaving, hand in hand with Mako. The girls free hand giving them a little wave as they went. 

The door shut behind them and both the men let out a sigh, before catching each others eye and bursting into infectious laughter. It dissolved into warm smiles, as they both gazed into each others faces, embedding each line and freckle to memory. They soon realized that this was probably longer than acceptable for lab partners to stare at each other and quickly looked away.

“I uhh.. I have to..” Newton cleared his throat and motioned vaguely at something across the lab. Hermann nodded and mumbled something similar, standing a second too long before moving back to his blackboard. The tension followed them both. 

He began rubbing out some old calculation he no longer needed to make it look like he was actually working when he noticed a little doodle in the bottom corner of the board. It was of three people holding hands, obviously drawn by Mako, one of them holding a stick. Hermann’s heart panged as he realised it was supposed to be her, him and Newton. He decided he couldn’t rub it out. 

The afternoon passed in relative silence, the tinny sound of rock and roll coming from Newton’s headphones and chalk against the blackboard was a familiar soundtrack to their work. The day drew to an end, the lab was cast in a dark gold, nostalgic shadows danced over them. 

“Hey..” Newton appeared behind Hermann, making him jump slightly as he was pulled out of his studies. The biologist handed him his parka and a smile, Hermann accepted both. 

“..um, see you tomorrow?” Newton asked, again sounding like he had meant to say something more.

Hermann realised he handed said anything and stuttered out a “Yes.. Yes, absolutely.”

The biologist smiled sheepishly, giving a quick nod before turning and leaving Hermann alone to stare at the door he’d just closed behind him, still trying to think of the right words to express how he felt. 

A minute or five after Newton had left, he finally thought of one: “..Shit.”

He buried his face in his hand, as if he could hide his obvious infatuation for his lab partner behind them. He wondered if it was obvious to Newt… Oh, God… He groaned, how could this have happened? 

How could he, Dr Hermann Gottlieb, have fallen so hard for this kaiju groupie?


End file.
